Town and Country Planning articles from April 2004

Town and Country Planning archives from April 2004

25 years ago.(T&CP back bites)
April 1, 2004... THE NEW TOWNS after the war were originally thought of as very self-contained entities. To appreciate the continuing virtues of new towns, we must realise that we have moved into a third stage, that of the regional city. The new town today...

10 years ago.(T&CP back bites)
April 1, 2004... THE PROMINENCE of 'community' in land use planning policy during the last 50 years is largely a consequence of wishful thinking and ideology. We need to focus environmental planning for sustainability upon achievable objectives of...

5 years ago.(T&CP back bites)
April 1, 2004... GIVEN A workable framework for regional planning (easier said than done), one can hope that planning will give a lead, rather than acting as an umpire among opposing sides in planning disputes. The planning system should be an initiator of land...

Context: news digest, March 2004.
April 1, 2004... * 1.3 Climate Change: In letter from its Vice President Professor David Wallace to Ivor Caplin, the Minister responsible for defence estates, the Royal Society warns that the Government's targets for developing renewable energy in the UK may be...

In pursuit of sustainability in retailing--at regional, sub-regional, and local levels.
April 1, 2004... THE TCPA'S RESPONSE to the ODPM consultation on draft PPS6: Planning for Town Centres highlighted the need to secure sustainability at regional, sub regional, and local levels. In the retail context this is best addressed, the TCPA argued,...

A fourth bite at the cherry.
April 1, 2004... IN THE FINAL REPORT of her review, Kate Barker has confounded the sceptics and opted for a fair and reasonable 'supplement' to be charged on the excessive windfall gains that the award of planning permission grants to certain kinds of sites in...

Big ideas for small sites.(People & Ideas)
April 1, 2004... THE RIVER LEA wanders down the border between Essex and Hertfordshire and meanders through the East End of London, joining the Thames at Canning Town in a series of wharves immediately opposite the Millennium Dome. On one of these, Trinity Buoy...

Are we really serious?(Planning World)
April 1, 2004... THE ULTIMATE boring sin is to tell the same story twice--at least at intervals of less than two years, after which you can be reasonably sure either that (a) you've forgotten you told it to them or (b) they've forgotten you told it to them: But...

Happy days are here again.(Trading Places)
April 1, 2004... BACK IN THE olden days--well, in the 1970s--this was how retail planning was supposed to work. The counties, in preparing structure plans, were told to estimate future changes in demand for retail goods and services, and ensure that sufficient...

Statements of community involvement--an answer to nimbyism.(Off the Fence)
April 1, 2004... THE PLANNING and Compulsory Purchase Bill's lurch through Parliament has been uncomfortable to watch. Few people asked for change on this scale, and most are anxious about the practical consequences of switching to the new system. The Bill...

No rekindling here: the planning profession deserves better from draft PPS1, says John Deegan who finds little in the document to relight planning's fire.(key policy and principles)
April 1, 2004... THE DRAFT OF Planning Policy Statement 1 (PPS1): Creating Sustainable Communities aims to set out the Government's vision for planning and the key policies and principles which should underpin the planning system. Does it do that? Well, I guess...

So what does PPS1 tell us about spatial planning? The ambitious goal of spatial planning--as envisaged in PPS1--needs to be implemented in more ways than through the statutory planning system.(key policy and principles)
April 1, 2004... The real problem with spatial planning in PPS1 lies in the disjuncture between, on the one hand, the emphasis on 'the nature of place' and integrating a wide set of relevant policies and programmes and, on the other, the continuing definition...

Beyond lip-service: Hugh Ellis finds an important step forward in the ODPM's Community Involvement in Planning paper, and argues that we should now seek a lasting settlement of the role of participative democracy in the planning system by making clear just how much power local communities have.(participation in planning)
April 1, 2004... AS A STRINGENT CRITIC of the Government's reform package, it's uncomfortable to be in a position of welcoming a major policy announcement. The Government's recent paper Community Involvement in Planning: The Government's Objectives is, however,...

The Northern way--will it make things happen? Welcome though it is as an attempt to put the North centre stage in national debates about urban, regional, and spatial policy, the ODPM's Northern Way 'plan' needs to be fleshed out to address a number of serious weaknesses, say Barry Goodchild and Paul Hickman.('sustainable communities')
April 1, 2004... THE GOVERNMENT'S 'blueprint' for creating sustainable communities in the North of England, Making in Happen: The Northern Way, (1) which was announced with considerable fanfare in February, is an interesting document. While considerable...

A wakeup call that should not be suppressed: David Lock and Peter Hall give a welcome to the Final Report of the Barker review of housing supply.(Barker Review)
April 1, 2004... THERE IS AN AUTOMATIC DEFAULT in our culture which causes all discussion about the need for housing to turn immediately into discussion of environmental impact. It is 'concreting over the countryside', 'building on the green belt', and...

What's on.(Calendar)
April 1, 2004... May 6 Planning for Change: Strategies for Effective Planning Policies. Conference, London. 189 [pounds sterling]-399 [pounds sterling]. Details: Neil Stewart Associates, London. T: 020-7324 4330. W: www. neilstewartassociates.com 17 &...

'Principled localism'--a new framework for local governance: drawing on recently published research, Fay Blair and Bob Evans propose a framework to guide and support local government in the task of protecting and enhancing quality of life and delivery sustainable development.(local governance)
April 1, 2004... OVER THE LAST TEN YEARS or so, sustainable development has become an accepted policy principle both in the UK and ill the wider context of Europe. Indeed, the European Union (EU) has adopted sustainable development as its key guiding...

Delivery E-planning: as the government's target for the 'e-enablement' of all relevant local authority services by the end of 2005 comes nearer, Janice Morphet examines the support programmes to help local authorities in implementing 'e-planning'--the electronic delivery of planning services.(electronics service delivery)(Cover Story)
April 1, 2004... THE RECENT INCLUSION of e-planning within the quality of service in planning Best Value performance indicators (BVPIs) for 2004/05 (1) marks e-planning's transition from a useful tool to an operational prerequisite. E-planning is an important...

Planning the protection of historic parks and gardens: John Darlington and David Alexander report on research into the effectiveness of 'registered park and garden' designation in protecting historic designed landscapes through the planning system:.(historic designed landscapes)
April 1, 2004... HISTORIC DESIGNED LANDSCAPES represent one of the defining assets of the English countryside. (1) Protection of these landscapes is currently afforded by a variety of different planning policies and guidance, but the primary designation tool is...

Alive, alive o! Street trading in town centres: Peter Jones, David Hillier, and Daphne Comfort look at the contribution of street trading activities in the UK, and at some of the factors influencing associated local authority promotion and regulation policies.(town centre retailing)
April 1, 2004... THE RECENTLY ISSUED Draft Planning Policy Statement 6: Planning for Town Centres (1) suggests that street markets can make a valuable contribution to the vitality of town centres. It recommends that local authorities should look to retain and...

Food for thought--fairer access to a healthy diet in Scotland: as health becomes an increasingly significant cross-cutting issue for the Scottish Executive, Deborah Peel asks whether the spatiality of community food and health issues has, as yet, been identified by the land use planning system.(North & West of Watford)
April 1, 2004... ON 5 MARCH 2004, during 'Fairtrade Fortnight', ten cities across the UK were awarded 'Fairtrade City' status, joining the 31 existing towns, cities, villages, and zones which are part of the Fairtrade Towns Initiative. The Fairtrade campaign...

Ghost Town busting.(Going Local)
April 1, 2004... WHEN Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire lost its last bank branch three years ago, it didn't Just lose a convenient cash point: it also lost a bakery, a dry cleaners, a newsagent, and a greengrocer. In short, it lost the heart of its local...

A grown-up response.
April 1, 2004... THE NIGHT BEFORE this new design guide from the Office of Deputy Prime Minister landed on my doormat, I'd been to a fascinating talk by architectural historian, Alan Powers, on the lasting influence of Gordon Cullen's 1961 book Townscape. Two...

What's a bus?(Connections)
April 1, 2004... NEWS THAT academics have been recruited by Gloucestershire County Council 'to help council staff learn how to use buses and trains" (to use the words of the Gloucester Citizen) may do little to help raise the reputation of local government...

Make way for the car.(Connections)
April 1, 2004... MEANWHILE, the authorities in China are going the other way. Shanghai is extending a ban on cyclists in the city's major streets to make way for the boom in car use. And in Beijing officials are trying to persuade some of the city's the 8...

No panacea.(Connections)
April 1, 2004... OBJECTORS TO WINDFARMS often salve their consciences by claiming that they support wind energy but believe it should come from offshore wind turbines. But this may be no panacea, for the substations and transmission lines needed to connect the...

Parish sense.(Connections)
April 1, 2004... THERE IS SOME GOOD NEWS on the energy scene. A survey of 1,700 town and parish councils carried out by the Government Office for the East of England (with an amazing 50 per cent response rate) suggests that many grassroots councillors are well...

March against the TCPA.(Connections)
April 1, 2004... WITH NOTHING BETTER to do, I searched 'TCPA' on the internet. To my surprise, the top site was AgainstTCPA.com. And the headline on the site called for a protest march in London against the TCPA. But Carlton House Terrace is not about to...